From the 'Well of the Retching Cure' to a commuter village on the M9 motorway

19th Century Quarter Sessions Road Repairs I

Quarter sessions were local courts that were usually held about four times each year. The courts did not have juries and were run by justices of the peace. Reilly outlines that justice of the peace were “a body of twenty three of the largest landholders in a county selected by the high sheriff in the spring and summer to meet with the crown’s circuit judges to present indictments for criminal charges and to serve as the financial body to impose the taxes for the repair of roads and bridges, the erections of courthouses and jails.”[1] Below are the first series of road repair entries that mention places and people connected with the Paulstown area.

Spring 1823 – To Henry and John Flood, Esqrs., and Patt Tehan, to open twelve perches of road from Castlecomer to Goresbridge, between a white thorn tree at Paulstown and a bridge at Paulstown[3]

Spring 1832 – To Thomas T. Bookey Esq. the Rev. James Maher, and Michael Kennedy, to build a gullet across the road at Paulstown, (18 perches of mason work), on the road from Goresbridge to Castlecomer, 7l. 19s. 2d., stamps 4s. 2d. [4]